Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 02 (of 14), 1899Mississippi Historical Society
History
Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 02 (of 14), 1899
Mississippi Historical Society
Mississippi -- History
One who goes to England and Scotland, and notes in their great cities
such as London and Edinburgh the numerous monuments, mural tablets and
other devices which commemorate events and characters and deeds will
understand better than ever why the Englishman and Scotchman each is
proud of his race, his government, his country.
In 1896, I visited the old town of Portsmouth, Va., and as I passed
along the main street I saw a marble slab inserted flush with the
pavement, and it told that on that spot the honored and loved Lafayette
stood when he revisited the old Commonwealth and received the grateful
greetings of a people for whom he had put his life into the perils of
war.
The preservation of historical buildings and grounds and the devotion
of them to public and patriotic uses is of the same character and
importance.
The Ladies Association, aided by the eloquence of Edward Everett,
purchased Mt. Vernon and donated it to the sacred purposes of
patriotism. The preservation of the old church at Williamsburg, Va.,
of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, of Monticello as Jefferson left
it--all these and other things of like character not only keep alive
our interest in the great events of the past but sustain and justify
our civic pride.
Is there nothing of this kind in Mississippi that is worthy of loving
care and devotion to public use? Upon the extreme southern border of
the State, where the Magnolia blooms in its native perfection, where
the crested waves of the gulf work the sunbeams and the moon's silvery
sheen into forms of laughing beauty that suggest the noble womanly
character of the wife and the "daughter of the Confederacy," where the
roaring sea, that cannot be hushed, tells of the unconquerable spirit
of devotion to our people and their cause, that stood erect amid all
the indignities and wrongs put upon it by a vindictive and cruel foe;
here we have Beauvoir that is worthy of the care of all Mississippians,
of all Southerners, nay of all American patriots. This property
suitably marked, will furnish one of the grandest of object lessons,
pointing to a man who bravely fought for his country on foreign soil,
who stood as an embodiment of incorruptible principle and splendid
ability on the floor of the United States Senate and who headed a great
popular movement which produced the most philosophic, as well as the
most thrilling period of the history of this country and who shows us
how a great man can maintain his manliness and command respect and
admiration even in defeat and direst disaster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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